Romania is a beautiful country with a very powerful passport. The Romanian passport allows you to travel to 150+ countries visa-free. So, if you are among the lucky bloodline of Romania you can claim your citizenship by descent and can enjoy a powerful passport as well. The Romania citizenship by descent program is straightforward we are going to take a look at the procedure of getting Romania citizenship through the descent program. First, you need to find out if your ancestors are from Romania.
The Romania is a country that is cheap to live in. It’s even cheaper than living in Hungary. Moreover, Romania has a simple tax system. The income tax is flat 10 percent for personal income which is very low compared to other countries. So, if you are looking to live in a country with cheaper pricing and low income tax then Romania can be your second home.
According to the Romania Article 5, the child is a citizen of Romania if one of the parents is a citizen of Romania when the child is born. The place of birth does not matter. Even if you are born in the United States while your parents were part of Romania you are eligible for the citizenship by descent program.
Now if we look at the second law of citizenship by descent in Romania. There is article 10 which states that you can apply for citizenship if your parent or grandparents were citizens of Romania. The third law which is Article 11 that dictates that you are eligible for citizenship of Romania if your parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents were citizens of Romania. Yes, you can go back three generations to claim your citizenship.
Who are eligible for Romanian Citizenship by descent program
You are eligible for Romanian citizenship by descent program if you fall in one of the following categories.
You can apply for citizenship if you are a descendant of grandparents. The second option is that if you are adopted by a Romanian citizen. The third category is that if your both parents were or are Romanian citizens. The fourth category dictates that if one of your eight grandparents was part of Romanian citizenship.
If you fall from any above-mentioned categories. You are free to apply for citizenship.
How to apply for Romanian citizenship by descent
Let’s take a look at the procedure you need to follow to apply for the citizenship in Romania.
Step 1: Find your ancestors
The first step is to determine that if your ancestors are truly from the Romania. You have to go through family history to find out if your parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents are from the Romania. Moreover, you can even apply for citizenship if your ancestors were the part of great Romania. Also, you will be glad to know that you don’t have to learn Romanian to get citizenship.
Step 2: Gather legal proof
This is the most important and most time-consuming process. You have to find all the legal documents that claim that your ancestors are from Romania. That they were or are the citizens of Romania. You have to get the proof of your heritage. You can get the proof from Romanian authorities or by searching the Romanian archives. However, it will take a lot of your time. In fact, I highly recommend people get the help from legal team to gather all the documents. As it is time-consuming and can be a hectic task to gather all the proof of heritage. Now after gathering all the proof of heritage, you have to translate them into the Romanian language. You also need to legalize them. In short, you have to provide your existence proof along with your ancestor’s citizenship proof by translating them into the Romanian language.
Step 3: Collect all documents
The third step to getting citizenship by descent in Romania is by gathering all the necessary documents. But before collecting documents you need to know that the oath you will take for citizenship will be in the Romanian language. So, we highly recommend learning the language at a slight level to avoid any further issues. The documents required are your passport, and proof of income that you earn enough to live in Romania. Moreover, you need to provide a criminal record from your current country. You need to gather all the ancestor’s documents that are their birth certificate, marriage certificate, and death certificate if applicable. You will also need to provide proof of lost citizenship if it is applicable.
Step 4: Submitting the documents
After gathering all the documents you need to submit them in person to the Romania government. However, if you cannot travel to Romania for any reason you can still submit your documents to your closes consulate of Romania. After submitting the documents you will get the tracking number that can be tracked through the official website of the national authority of Romania citizenship.
Step 5: Getting Decree
If there is no issue with your current documents the Romanian official will send you a decree. The official confirmation will be sent to your address by the president of the national authority of citizenship. Once you get the official copy of the decree you nearly become a citizen of Romania.
Step 6: Oath taking
After the approval of your case of citizenship. You have six months to take action to get citizenship. If you fail to take action on the decree within six then its probably will get lost and you will not be able to claim your citizenship. So, I highly recommend you take your oath as soon as you get the official decree.
You need to take an oath in front of your current country’s Romanian consulate officer. After getting the oath you will be granted with the certificate of a citizen of Romania. After that, you need to get the transcription of your civil status from the civil status office that is in Romania.
In the end
The above-mentioned steps are the process you have to go through to get Romanian citizenship by descent.